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Status of Illegal Dumping of Post-Consumer Use Home Appliances and Personal Computers during April to September 2004

October 27, 2005

The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) compiled its survey results of FY 2004 on illegal dumping of post-consumer use home appliances in relation to the Law for the Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances (Home Appliances Recycling Law) enforced in April 2001. Taking into consideration recovery of post-consumer use personal computers from domestic households by manufacturers and parties concerned which started in October 2003, illegal dumping of post-consumer use personal computers was also surveyed for the same period.

1.

Status of illegal dumping of post-consumer use specified home appliances (April 2004 - March 2005)

(1)

Changes in status of illegal dumping of four specified home appliances

Table 1 shows the changes in status of illegal dumping of four specified home appliances, namely air conditioners, television sets, refrigerators and freezers, and washing machines in FY 2003 and FY 2004 in 2,228 municipalities(1) are holding such data. When compared to those of the same period in 2003, number of municipalities with increased illegal dumping was 838 (37.6%), 242 (10.9%) municipalities were with no change in number of illegal change while 1,148 (51.5%) municipalities were with decrease in illegal dumping.

Fig. 1 shows that the ratio of municipalities with increased illegal dumping decreased from 45.6% to 37.6% and municipalities with decreased illegal dumping increased from 40.6% to 51.5%.

Breakdown of by item shows; air conditioners, increased in 526 municipalities, no change in 939 municipalities and decreased in 763 in municipalities; television sets 805 increased in 526 municipalities, no change in 300 municipalities and decreased in 1,123 municipalities; refrigerators and freezers increased in 759 municipalities, no change in 535 municipalities and decreased in 934 in municipalities; washing machines increased in 733 municipalities, no change in 579 municipalities and decreased in 916 municipalities.

In regard to the illegally dumped units, fluctuation is within single digit (±10 units) for air conditioners in 2,065 municipalities (92.6%), television sets in 1,487 municipalities (66.7%), refrigerators and freezers in 1,909 municipalities (85.6%) and washing machines in 1,921 municipalities (86.2%), the trend of which remains same as 2003. (Table 2)

(2)

Changes in number of units illegally dumped

A breakdown of illegal dumping of post-consumer use specified home appliances in FY 2004 in 2,526 municipalities(2) holding data shows 15,786 air conditioners, 86,640 television sets, 38,638 refrigerators and freezers, 31,263 washing machines, and the total of the four items shows 172,327.

Table3 shows the comparison of the number of illegally dumped units of four specified home appliances in FY 2003 and FY 2004 (total number of illegally dumped four specified home appliances was 167,207 unites in FY 2004) in 2,228 municipalities holding data. Number of illegally dumped units of air conditioners decreased by 1,195 (7.2%), television sets decreased by 398, refrigerators and freezers increased by 1,000 (2.7%) and washing machines increased by 302 and total decreased by 291 units (0.2%). (Fig. 2)

In FY 2004, illegally dumped units accounted for 1.58% (1.69% in FY 2003) of the number of total collected units (sum of illegally dumped units and the number of units recovered at designated collection sites). The ratio of illegally dumped units to the number of collected units is within the range of 1% and 2%, remaining flat compared to that of FY 2003, requiring a continuous monitoring.

Notes:

1. Total population of the 2,228 municipalities is 123 million (96% of total population).

2. Total population of the 2,526 municipalities is 128.42 million (99% of total population).

In 1,175 municipalities(4) having the data on the illegal dumping for FY 2003 and FY 2004, the comparison of the data shows the following increase; 160 units increase in desk-top type, 83 units increase in note-book type, 141 units increase in CRT displays, and 25 units increase in liquid crystal displays. The total increase is 409 units. (Table 5)

Notes:

3. Total population of the 2,150 municipalities is 106.47 million (about 82% of total population).

4. Total population of the 1,175 municipalities is 41.45 million (about 32% of total population).